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FRONTLINE
DRIVING RETURNS FROM YOUR ERP INVESTMENT
ing of the users, as well as postMANY ORGANISATIONS FAIL to ponement of the implementation deliver the benefits which were of some parts of the system due to envisaged in the original busiimplementation fatigue or budness case for their ERP sysgetary constraints. tem investment. When this hapSome of the comMost of pens, a very expenmon reasons for the cost of the sive asset is being this are due to a significantly underlack of focus on utilised. The benefits realisaimplementation Enterprise Resource tion during imhas already been incurred Planning (ERP) plementation or Assessment is a low cost from taking inadeapproach to identifying opporquate account of process tunities for improvement and preand organisational change. This senting potential benefits to the also may be the case because of senior management team. insufficient education and train-
ERP system
DELIVERABLES An assessment is made of current operations and of how the ERP system is being used to support and improve the business processes. An analysis of results and identification of opportunities for improvement is produced to provide an estimate of benefits resulting from those opportunities, which often come in the form of a prioritised list of potential improvement initiatives. A feedback presentation is then made to senior management outlining the potential benefits and proposed implementation approach.
BENEFITS Most of the cost of the ERP system implementation has already been incurred – the ERP Assessment is about identifying how to drive further benefits from the initial investment. The assessment and feedback processes are highly engaging and interactive, which helps to build ownership and commitment to the improvement initiatives, and many of the initiatives identified are likely to be low investment in relation to the return, and therefore will be self funding. For more information on this service, please visit www.bsmconsulting.co.uk/erp-assessment.
BAD CONNECTIONS A STUDY BY BOSTON RESEARCHERS published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics found that most of the psychiatrists on the American Psychiatric Association panels who wrote the newest clinical guidelines on treating depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia had financial ties to drug companies. Lisa Cosgrove of the University of MassachusettsBoston and colleagues searched publicly accessible databases such as Medline and
the records of the federal patent office to identify financial ties. Eighteen of the 20 authors had at least one financial tie to drug companies. Twelve authors had ties in at least three categories, such as consulting, research grants, speaking fees or stock ownership. The study also found that all of the authors of schizophrenia and bipolar guidelines had relationships with the drug industry, while 60 percent of the authors of the depression guidelines had similar connections.
ISSUE IN NUM8ERS
86
3 â‚Ź2 bilion a year GSK is undertaking a restructuring plan to reduce costs by
over the next two years (p28)
An orphan disease is one that hits anywhere between 2000 and 250,000 people (p40) Between 600,000 and
800,000 babies die every year in the developing world from rotavirus-induced diarrhoea (p86)
106,000 deaths are caused by adverse drug reactions in the US each year (p116) www.ngpharma.eu.com
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